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Sicario Meets Terminator In This Overlooked 2010s Action Thriller That Deserved Better

He said he'd be back!

Sicario Meets Terminator In This Overlooked 2010s Action Thriller That Deserved Better

Simon Gallagher has worked in movie and TV journalism for more than 17 years. He has written more than 6000 articles and reviews, and edited thousands more. He is an expert in the entertainment industry, particularly in the golden age of screen superheroes. Simon is also a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic.

The 2000s and 2010s kicked off a new wave of obsession in action movies, with more gritty realism, more moody hyper-violence, and a noticeable shift away from gonzo entertainment in mainstream releases. Everything became Sicario, which channeled rising border tension, with the eternally compelling idea of organized crime - cartels, in this case - and above-the-law agents operating in a sort of lawless no-man’s-land. Villeneuve built a movie that was both immaculately paranoid, but simultaneously breathlessly fast-paced, and full of bone-crunching action. It was also considerably more intelligent than the , and helped create the blueprint that the hugely talented writer/director - and his copycats - has ran wild with since. Considering the film he made before he wrote it - forgotten torture porn original Vile - the perfection of Sicario is even more impressive. And since its release, fans have hungrily sought out their next watch that captured even some of The Last Stand, which was also set in the sun-drenched borderlands of modern cartels with a return to form action leading man performance by the legend that is Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Made His Real Comeback In The Last Stand

Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Last Stand

In 2003, Hollywood's loss was politics' gain, as Schwarzenegger stepped away from acting to become the Governor of California, and aside from a couple of cameo appearances, largely remained inactive beyond the end of his term in office in 2011. He did, playfully dip his toe back into the action with his first cameo (uncredited) in The Expendables, and then returned for an expanded role in the sequel, but he hadn’t been a leading man since Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

That changed with The Last Stand, which was very much a vehicle for Arnie that drew on his action star mythology. On the pre-release marketing rounds, he spoke of being drawn to the opportunity to get back to what he knew:

“What I was looking for in a movie was just simply a typical kind of Arnold action movie and this one had great chase scenes, great action, great fight scenes and shoot-outs and it also had some great comic relief and a good story.”
But there’s difference, too, as Schwarzenegger said in the same , his Sheriff Ray Owens is less of an impenetrable hero archetype, he’s more vulnerable. At the same time, though, his background and the contradiction of his small border town isolation mean he’s essentially a one-man army, and The Last Stand delivers that same relentless, believable threat he brought to his performance as the Terminator.

Despite how well it anticipated the same warzone as Sicario, The Last Stand didn’t get a massive injection of hype from Schwarzenegger’s return. Costing a reported $45 million, it took just $48 million at the worldwide box office, thanks to a graveyard release in January. Nothing about that performance was justified.

Why The Last Stand Is Worth Watching

Arnold Schwarzenegger sits in The Last Stand

The Last Stand is way better than both its box office and its somewhat middling 61% RottenTomatoes score suggest. It works for exactly the same reasons Schwarzenegger was drawn to it: lots of action, lots of fun - thanks in part to Johnny Knoxville’s role - and a role for Arnie that humanized him while reminding everyone that he was still exactly the kind of superhuman who could reasonably stand between a violent cartel and the Mexican border.

It’s also

ScreenRant logo

7/10

Release Date

January 12, 2013

Runtime

107 Minutes

Director

Jee-woon Kim

Writers

Andrew Knauer, George Nolfi, Jeffrey Nachmanoff

  • Headshot Of Arnold Schwarzenegger In The Los Angeles Premiere Of Netflix's <h3 class='FUBAR'

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    Sheriff Ray Owens

  • Headshot OF Johnny Knoxville

    Johnny Knoxville

    Lewis Dinkum

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Reported by Simon Gallagher · Syndicated via official news feed

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